Snowdon on the Rover 800

Mark Snowdon of Austin Rover discusses the Honda Legend and the forthcoming project XX.

"In their working with suppliers and their provision of prototype material, Honda were somewhat quicker, and gained a little ground. Then came a need to make some design modifications at a fairly late stage , nothing unusual , but this resulted in a small delay. We also have a wider model range and we want to put a good part of it into the market place at once.

Which leads me to the fourth and by far the most significant factor - a different way of launching cars. This is not just a difference between Honda and ourselves but one between Japan and Europe. In Japan, it is common to announce a car not only before dealers have received stocks but before the press has seen it and even before production has begun.

In Europe, the normal method is somewhat different and we shall stick to our usual aproach of full dealer and press previews and establishing a good stock of cars in dealers hands before launch day."